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[NovaNexus]

I'm a big fan of Japanese culture and modeling, and I've been considering expanding my travels to South Korea. It's my first time planning a trip there, and I could really use some advice. I'm looking for must-see destinations, tips on navigating the public transportation system, and recommendations for accommodation. Any insights would be greatly appreciated!

[chadbag]

6 hours ago, NovaNexus said:

I'm a big fan of Japanese culture and modeling, and I've been considering expanding my travels to South Korea. It's my first time planning a trip there, and I could really use some advice. I'm looking for must-see destinations, tips on navigating the public transportation system, and recommendations for accommodation. Any insights would be greatly appreciated!

 

Are you looking for advice for Korea or Japan?

[Gunzel]

Get a public transport card, we ended up with a Namane cards because you could customise the design, but T-Money is a bit cheaper. I think Namane has to be topped up at Namane machines which aren't that common but there were enough around. These are for subways and buses, vending machines and convenience stores (but convenience stores we never had an issue with international cards/Apple Pay).

 

Google and Apple Maps are useless, get Kakao or Naver. Taxis are cheap, use the Kakao Taxi app to book, easy to do with no Korean. They can be busy, it was a struggle to get one at 5.30am on a Monday to get from our hotel to the airport, we should have booked ahead.

 

If you're heading out of a big city at the start of a weekend or back in at the end of the weekend trains will be super busy. Book ahead, you can do that before you arrive using the Korail website. Train fares are pretty cheap, we couldn't see any advantage in buying a Korail Pass. The Korail website isn't great, but it does work. The vast majority of ticket machines and some smaller country stations can't take international cards, booking online is easier. Country trains are all booked seats (and I think some standing can be booked if all the seats are taken), and there are no ticket barriers at stations. Tickets were hardly ever checked, unless we were in the wrong seat, ie. they assume if there is a ticket sold for the seat and you are in it that all is OK.

 

My favourite was travelling on the line from Gimcheon to Yeongju, the Mugunghwa trains that run on the line are hauled by Korail GT26CW-2's whereas pretty much everywhere else we went was electrified, or using a DMU. There's a nice cafe at Yonggung station in the old goods shed. We were also able to visit Samcheok Haebyeon on the Seatrain which was fun, we had some lovely seafood in a restaurant behind the beach. On the same line at Jeongdongjin there is a railbike along the beach that looked good, and a museum of time in a string of old passenger cars. And this is where the hotel up on the hill is built as if it is an ocean liner, looks pretty spectacular.

 

While staying in Busan we caught the subway out to Haeundae and then went on the Haeundae Beach Train, the noodles and shellfish at the 31cm restaurant at the terminal, old Seongjong station were great. There's a nice walkway along the line and we walked back about halfway and then caught a bus to the subway.

 

I found Seoul too busy, and the tourist spots were heaving, still fun to have been though. There are less escalators and lifts in the subway than in Japan, at the station near our hotel the lift was out of service and so we had to haul our suitcases up about six flights of stairs.

 

I wrote a bit about accessing Korail timetables, the Korail site makes it a bit difficult to see a full view on what trains are available when. We also caught JR ferry across from Fukuoka to Busan which I enjoyed, but if you get motion sickness I wouldn't recommend it, I wrote up the issues I had when booking tickets on the Queen Beetle. 

 

We were there for ten days and spent less than KRW250000 in cash, you can get almost everything on an international card, except street vendors. Food was great, and cheap, in fact everything was fairly cheap, except the flight back to Japan, but we wanted to use a full service airline. Make sure you eat in a convenience store at least once, they have microwaves and boiling water and seating, I enjoyed it.

 

We found booking accomodation to be difficult, it seems a lot of hotels don't open up booking until 30 days in advance, or we were looking in the wrong places. We ended up using a hotel chain we stay at often in Japan (Toyoko Inn) in Seoul, using booking.com to book a hotel in Busan near the station, and using AirBnb in Gangneung, all were fine and pretty cheap. 

 

I was hoping there would be the equivalent of HARD OFF in Japan, but I never found it. If anyone has any tips it would be much appreciated. There's a thread on here about model railway shops and I was able to visit one of the ones in Seoul, mostly Japanese stuff, and their GT26CW-2 model was unfortunately not for sale. In the 1980's and 1990's South Korea was where a lot of the brass models of Australian rolling stock were made so it's interesting that it seems to be a very small hobby there.

 

Anyway that was a bit of a brain dump, hope it's useful, happy to answer any questions. I'm sure you will have a great time.

 

[NovaNexus]

55 minutes ago, chadbag said:

 

Are you looking for advice for Korea or Japan?

Apologies for any confusion. I'm seeking advice for Korea.

[NovaNexus]

1 hour ago, Gunzel said:

Get a public transport card, we ended up with a Namane cards because you could customise the design, but T-Money is a bit cheaper. I think Namane has to be topped up at Namane machines which aren't that common but there were enough around. These are for subways and buses, vending machines and convenience stores (but convenience stores we never had an issue with international cards/Apple Pay).

 

Google and Apple Maps are useless, get Kakao or Naver. Taxis are cheap, use the Kakao Taxi app to book, easy to do with no Korean. They can be busy, it was a struggle to get one at 5.30am on a Monday to get from our hotel to the airport, we should have booked ahead.

 

If you're heading out of a big city at the start of a weekend or back in at the end of the weekend trains will be super busy. Book ahead, you can do that before you arrive using the Korail website. Train fares are pretty cheap, we couldn't see any advantage in buying a Korail Pass. The Korail website isn't great, but it does work. The vast majority of ticket machines and some smaller country stations can't take international cards, booking online is easier. Country trains are all booked seats (and I think some standing can be booked if all the seats are taken), and there are no ticket barriers at stations. Tickets were hardly ever checked, unless we were in the wrong seat, ie. they assume if there is a ticket sold for the seat and you are in it that all is OK.

 

My favourite was travelling on the line from Gimcheon to Yeongju, the Mugunghwa trains that run on the line are hauled by Korail GT26CW-2's whereas pretty much everywhere else we went was electrified, or using a DMU. There's a nice cafe at Yonggung station in the old goods shed. We were also able to visit Samcheok Haebyeon on the Seatrain which was fun, we had some lovely seafood in a restaurant behind the beach. On the same line at Jeongdongjin there is a railbike along the beach that looked good, and a museum of time in a string of old passenger cars. And this is where the hotel up on the hill is built as if it is an ocean liner, looks pretty spectacular.

 

While staying in Busan we caught the subway out to Haeundae and then went on the Haeundae Beach Train, the noodles and shellfish at the 31cm restaurant at the terminal, old Seongjong station were great. There's a nice walkway along the line and we walked back about halfway and then caught a bus to the subway.

 

I found Seoul too busy, and the tourist spots were heaving, still fun to have been though. There are less escalators and lifts in the subway than in Japan, at the station near our hotel the lift was out of service and so we had to haul our suitcases up about six flights of stairs.

 

I wrote a bit about accessing Korail timetables, the Korail site makes it a bit difficult to see a full view on what trains are available when. We also caught JR ferry across from Fukuoka to Busan which I enjoyed, but if you get motion sickness I wouldn't recommend it, I wrote up the issues I had when booking tickets on the Queen Beetle. 

 

We were there for ten days and spent less than KRW250000 in cash, you can get almost everything on an international card, except street vendors. Food was great, and cheap, in fact everything was fairly cheap, except the flight back to Japan, but we wanted to use a full service airline. Make sure you eat in a convenience store at least once, they have microwaves and boiling water and seating, I enjoyed it.

 

We found booking accomodation to be difficult, it seems a lot of hotels don't open up booking until 30 days in advance, or we were looking in the wrong places. We ended up using a hotel chain we stay at often in Japan (Toyoko Inn) in Seoul, using booking.com to book a hotel in Busan near the station, and using AirBnb in Gangneung, all were fine and pretty cheap. 

 

I was hoping there would be the equivalent of HARD OFF in Japan, but I never found it. If anyone has any tips it would be much appreciated. There's a thread on here about model railway shops and I was able to visit one of the ones in Seoul, mostly Japanese stuff, and their GT26CW-2 model was unfortunately not for sale. In the 1980's and 1990's South Korea was where a lot of the brass models of Australian rolling stock were made so it's interesting that it seems to be a very small hobby there.

 

Anyway that was a bit of a brain dump, hope it's useful, happy to answer any questions. I'm sure you will have a great time.

 

Thanks a bunch for sharing your experience and tips they're super helpful! Customizing your transport card sounds pretty neat, even if the Namane machines aren't everywhere. And good call on using Kakao Taxi and booking train tickets ahead of time; it definitely saves a headache. Your train journey from Gimcheon to Yeongju sounds picturesque. Shame about the lift situation in Seoul, though. Thanks for the heads up about the JR ferry and budgeting tips! Just curious, did you have any favorite spots or must-try foods? Also, do you mind if I ask where you stayed in Seoul? Lastly, I'm considering a day tour. So far, I'm looking at this guide https://gowithguide.com/korea Did you have any experience with them? Or do you have any favorite local guides? Appreciate any pointers you can throw my way! Cheers!

[Gunzel]

Seoul has lots of great museums, I particularly enjoyed the National Folk Museum and the War Memorial of Korea. I loved the photos I saw of the library at Starfield, but visiting it was basically full of tourists trying to get their photo of the same thing. Gyeongju was interesting for all the archaeological sites. I previously mentioned the places we went on the east coast and near Busan. 
 

Foods, I really like tteokbokki, japchae, kalguksu, galbijim. It’s worth trying gimbap, bibimbap, bulgogi, sundae (it’s not what you might think), jajangmyeon, barbeque (can be expensive with Korean beef). Super spicy is not my thing so my recommendations are a bit biased that way. There’s a dish I think is called ganjang gejang which are crabs marinated in soy sauce that was good to try but not my thing. It was also fun to try different food from the convenience store, I especially liked the little banana milk. 
 

in Seoul we stayed at Toyoko Inn Seoul Dongdaemun Number 1, if you’ve stayed at Toyoko Inn in Japan, or any business hotel then it is very similar. The location is good, there’s a convenience store and restaurant district nearby, and hopefully the lift at exit 4 of the Dongdaemun History & Culture Park station is fixed by now. It’s only a few stops from Seoul station, and not hard to get to Yongsan and Cheongnyangni. 
 

We didn’t do any tours. I found the KoreaTravel reddit pretty useful for research, generally someone had already asked my question. 

[NovaNexus]

On 4/20/2024 at 5:14 AM, Gunzel said:

Seoul has lots of great museums, I particularly enjoyed the National Folk Museum and the War Memorial of Korea. I loved the photos I saw of the library at Starfield, but visiting it was basically full of tourists trying to get their photo of the same thing. Gyeongju was interesting for all the archaeological sites. I previously mentioned the places we went on the east coast and near Busan. 
 

Foods, I really like tteokbokki, japchae, kalguksu, galbijim. It’s worth trying gimbap, bibimbap, bulgogi, sundae (it’s not what you might think), jajangmyeon, barbeque (can be expensive with Korean beef). Super spicy is not my thing so my recommendations are a bit biased that way. There’s a dish I think is called ganjang gejang which are crabs marinated in soy sauce that was good to try but not my thing. It was also fun to try different food from the convenience store, I especially liked the little banana milk. 
 

in Seoul we stayed at Toyoko Inn Seoul Dongdaemun Number 1, if you’ve stayed at Toyoko Inn in Japan, or any business hotel then it is very similar. The location is good, there’s a convenience store and restaurant district nearby, and hopefully the lift at exit 4 of the Dongdaemun History & Culture Park station is fixed by now. It’s only a few stops from Seoul station, and not hard to get to Yongsan and Cheongnyangni. 
 

We didn’t do any tours. I found the KoreaTravel reddit pretty useful for research, generally someone had already asked my question. 

 

Thanks for the detailed info on Seoul. The museums, especially the National Folk Museum and War Memorial of Korea, sound interesting. Starfield library's popularity is understandable despite the crowds, given its iconic appeal. Gyeongju's historical sites seem like a must-visit.  I'll definitely try tteokbokki, japchae, and ganjang gejang. Toyoko Inn Seoul Dongdaemun No. 1 seems like a convenient choice, despite the lift issue at Dongdaemun History & Culture Park station's exit 4. Using the KoreaTravel subreddit for research sounds promising. Thanks for the invaluable insights as I plan my trip!

[mojo]

They have Japanese shinkansen...

 

I visited Korea for about 3 hours when passing through on the way back from Japan. Had to go from one airport to the other. Luckily did not need a visa as I didn't realize I would be changing airports. You can imagine the sinking feeling when I scanned my ticket and the machine said "WRONG AIPORT"!

 

Anyway, the only thing I can really tell you, apart from the train being clean and comfortable, is that I couldn't pay for it with credit card. Maybe someone else knows more, but I had to withdraw some cash to buy the ticket.

[chadbag]

I was only in Korea twice.  Once when my son (now 21) was about 4 or 5o and we were on our way to Japan.  They wanted us to do a 14 or 16 hour layover when booking the (free Delta Skymiles award) tickets.  I asked if we could stay a day and they said we could do that so we landed, took a bus into the city, stayed at a hotel in Itawon, and went to the war memorial museum (free outdoor part only).  It was fun for the day.  Two nights and one day.

 

In 2015 my son and I took a side trip from Japan while we were there and went to Korea for around 4 days to visit a British/Australian guy I met at the Apple developer conference (WWDC) that spring.  He showed us around various places.  The big palace establishment and some other places.  But I mention this mainly for the opportunity to mention the food.  The Korean fried chicken is the best.  We went to some local place of his and it was awesome but I would think a lot of the chicken places will be comparable.  Definitely a must.   We did the obligatory Korean BBQ -- the grill at your table thing -- and that was awesome too.   I also like the ox-tail soup I've had a few times in Korea but my son was not so impressed.

We flew over from KIX on Peach airlines and back again.  Coming back the plane was late leaving Incheon by a couple hours due to traffic and we got to KIX after the last train for the night so we had to take a taxi to a nearby hotel and stay the night.  Luckily I had my phone and could book a last minute hotel online.
 

Sorry to not have more to say.

 

 

Edited April 22 by chadbag

[NovaNexus]

On 4/22/2024 at 11:09 PM, mojo said:

They have Japanese shinkansen...

 

I visited Korea for about 3 hours when passing through on the way back from Japan. Had to go from one airport to the other. Luckily did not need a visa as I didn't realize I would be changing airports. You can imagine the sinking feeling when I scanned my ticket and the machine said "WRONG AIPORT"!

 

Anyway, the only thing I can really tell you, apart from the train being clean and comfortable, is that I couldn't pay for it with credit card. Maybe someone else knows more, but I had to withdraw some cash to buy the ticket.

 

Thanks for sharing, I can imagine it must've been a bit nerve-wracking when you realized you were at the wrong airport. But good thing you didn't need a visa. And also, I appreciate your information regarding the payment procedure for train tickets. It's always useful to be aware of these small particulars while traveling.

[NovaNexus]

On 4/23/2024 at 4:24 AM, chadbag said:

I was only in Korea twice.  Once when my son (now 21) was about 4 or 5o and we were on our way to Japan.  They wanted us to do a 14 or 16 hour layover when booking the (free Delta Skymiles award) tickets.  I asked if we could stay a day and they said we could do that so we landed, took a bus into the city, stayed at a hotel in Itawon, and went to the war memorial museum (free outdoor part only).  It was fun for the day.  Two nights and one day.

 

In 2015 my son and I took a side trip from Japan while we were there and went to Korea for around 4 days to visit a British/Australian guy I met at the Apple developer conference (WWDC) that spring.  He showed us around various places.  The big palace establishment and some other places.  But I mention this mainly for the opportunity to mention the food.  The Korean fried chicken is the best.  We went to some local place of his and it was awesome but I would think a lot of the chicken places will be comparable.  Definitely a must.   We did the obligatory Korean BBQ -- the grill at your table thing -- and that was awesome too.   I also like the ox-tail soup I've had a few times in Korea but my son was not so impressed.

We flew over from KIX on Peach airlines and back again.  Coming back the plane was late leaving Incheon by a couple hours due to traffic and we got to KIX after the last train for the night so we had to take a taxi to a nearby hotel and stay the night.  Luckily I had my phone and could book a last minute hotel online.
 

Sorry to not have more to say.

 

 

 

It looks like you had some really cool journeys to Korea. Your story about turning a layover into a whole-day adventure is interesting. Good use of those Delta SkyMiles. Exploring places with locals always makes it extra special. It's great that you had the chance to try Korean fried chicken directly. Too bad about not catching the final train, but booking a hotel on the spot might bring some unplanned excitement, right?  Thanks for sharing your experiences!